Alleged Abuse of Special Equipment purchased for use in Class Rooms

 මේ පැමිණිල්ල විදුහල්පතිට සහ අමාත්‍යාංශ ලේකම්ට යොමු කෙරුනේ මීට වසර එකහමාරකට පෙරාතුවයි. ඒකට හේතුව වසර ගනනාවක් පුරා සමහරක් Primary Teachersල ගජරාමෙට කරා ගෙන ගිය ගරානාව. අපට දැන් ලැබෙන තොරතුරු අනුව මේ කප්පම් ගැනිල්ල හුගාක් දුරට නැවතිලා. හැබැයි තවමත් pick pocket කාරයෝ අතරින් පතර ඕනෑ තරම් සිටිය හැකියි. එහෙම අය ගැන දන්නවා නම් සාක්ෂි සමග අප දැනුවත් කරන්න. අපි ඔවුන් උතුරු කුරු දිවයිනටම පට්ටල් කරන්නම්.

අපි හැම විටෙකම ගුරු දෙවියන්ට වැද නමස්කාර කරනවා. හැබැයි ගුරු වේශයෙන් සිටින හොරුන්ට එළව එළවා පහර දෙන්නේ දැඩි ප්‍රීතියකින්. කිසිම විදුහල්පති වරයෙකුට සහ අමාත්‍යාංශයට දශක ගනනාවකට නතර කරන්ඩ බැරි වනු දූෂණ අපි නතර කලේ මාස ගනනාවකින්!

මේ සුළු කාලය තුල අපි උගත් වැදගත්ම පාඩම, දූෂණය සහ අල්ලස කෙතරම් මුල් අල්ලා තිබුනත්, එය මුලිනුපුටා දමන්නට සියක් දහසක් අවශ්‍ය නැහැ කියන එකයි. ඒකට අවශ්‍ය සම්පූර්ණයෙන් කැපවු, නොපසුබස්නා කිහිප දෙනෙක් පමණයි. අනික නායකත්වයක් නැති, නායකයින් අන්දමන්දව සිටින තැනක, මිනිසුන්ට මග පෙන්වීමට කාගේවත් license එකක් ඕනෑ නැති බවයි.

එන්න. රාජකීය දූෂණ වංචා අපිට පෙන්නන්ඩ. දූෂිත පළවා හැරීම අපට පැවරී ඇති දේව කාර්යයි.

අපේ දරුවන්ට පිරිසුදු පාසලක් හදමු!

Alleged Abuse of Special Equipment

 

From: Padmasena Dissanayake <scholorshipsforusa@gmail.com>

Date: Tue, May 7, 2024 at 9:54 PM

Subject: Fwd: Alleged abuse of Special Equipment purchased for use in Class Rooms

To: thilak waththuhewa <xxxxxxx@gmail.com>

Cc: <eduminsecretary@gmail.com>

May 7th, 2024

 

The Principal,

Royal College,

Colombo

 

Dear Sir,

 

Alleged Abuse of Special Equipment purchased for use in Class Rooms

 

The undersigned is a well-wisher and an Alumnus of the School, who has already highlighted some irregular issues that is alleged to prevail at Royal College, affecting its staff and the RCU.

 

The object of this letter is to bring another case of suspected irregularity involving the equipment purchased , out of Parent’s hard earned money, under the belief that the equipments are being used totally for the students education.

 

I am given to understand that the primary section of Royal College, Colombo has a practice of purchasing items such as Televisions, DVD Players, and Projectors etc. at the beginning of each education year out of collections made from the parents of each class of Grades 1 & 3. This I understand is coordinated by the school’s management.

 

It is alleged that the said action is carried out as follows:-

 

1. At the beginning of the each education year, the class Teacher of each grade one (1) class, directs the parents of the students in her class, to install following brand new equipment, which she convinces the parents as essential equipment to teach the children in the first year of their education viz;-

 

• A Television set

• DVD Player,

• Water Dispenser,

• Overhead Projector,

• Ceiling or Wall Fans and

• a wall Clock

 

2. Such equipment purchased is used for 2 years (i.e. in Grade 1 & 2) because the same set of teachers continues for Grades 1 & 2.

 

3. When the same groups of students are moved to Grade 3, a different set of Teachers take them over. And the original process of securing brand new equipments for grade 3 classes is repeated because like G1 & 2, 3 & 4 are taught by a different teacher.

 

Given the above I have the following concerns and may I please ask for your unequivocal comments in respect of each of the following :-

 

(a) Are these equipments inventoried by the school’s authorities?

(b) What happens to the above mentioned equipment after the second year ?

(c) If they are disposed after the said 2 years, do they follow a transparent procedure to recover their prevailing market price ?

(d) If so, who approves such transactions?

(e) Are the proceeds accounted transparently and correctly, e.g. College rules/ procedures, MoE regulations etc.

 

I am given to understand that there is no transparency in such dealings. Therefore, I wish to bring the following facts to your attention in order that you can institute an urgent and extensive inquiry in to this matter:

 

(a) I understand that the equipment is auctioned by Teachers with the full awareness of the senior Management (including the Deputy Principal-Primary and the Principal himself). This is a practice, as reported, has been going on for many years.

 

(b) That each year, at Grade 1, classes are equipped with a brand new set of earlier said equipment.

 

(c) Complaining individuals have indicated that certain equipment such as TV, DVD and Projector are not used for more than 5 times during an academic year! This raises a question as to whether such equipments are essential for each class, each year ?

 

(d) I understand that they remove all or part of, earlier mentioned equipment from the Classrooms when they vacate after 2 years. If so, why can’t they offer them to the incoming students? Particularly if they are purchased out of Parent’s money. Don’t they belong to the school and not to any individual /s?

 

(e) It is also alleged that children of those parents who question this practice are tended to be harassed and those carrying out their instructions diligently , without any resistance or hesitation, special privileges in school activities irrespective of their talents!

 

The above are grave concerns of affected persons deeply associated with the school and are unhappy to come forward jointly or severally for obvious reasons.

 

Hence, l shall be most thankful for your early response.

 

Yours faithfully

 

Padmasena Dissanayake

RC ‘67-‘74

57/14 Raj Mah Vih Mw

Pita Kotte 10100

077.775.0849